Opening Bell

Many of the brokers and specialists who work the floor of the New York
Stock Exchange arrived on the job an hour and a half early last Monday.
They were preparing for an avalanche: the start of trading in 1.6
billion shares in eight new companies to be created Jan. 1 by the
breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph. At precisely 10 a.m., the
opening bell sounded with six swift clangs, and the rush was on. By
10:14, all eight of the new issues had opened, and 1.9 million
telephone shares had changed hands.